NetApp SMB/CIFS Network File Storage

Owned by Andy Tseng
Mar 21, 2024
4 min read

This is a guide on how to access your SMB/CIFS network file storage hosted on Univeristy's Research Data Storage Service (RDSS).

Details of Your SMB/CIFS Share

The SMB/CIFS address of your share can be constructed from the NetApp server name, your faculty code and your collection name.  The NetApp server is at research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au.

  • Address: //research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/faculty_code-collection_name (e.g. //research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/1000-2016UOM001)

  • Username: unimelb\your-unimelb-username (staff) or student\your-unimelb-user (students)

  • Password: your unimelb domain password

Connecting on macOS

From the macOS Finder

  • Click Go -> Connect to Server...

  • Enter the server address in the format smb://research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/faculty_code-collection_name in the Server Address field and click Connect.

  • If you see the "You are attempting to connect to the server "research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au" message, click Connect to continue.

  • Click the Registered User radio box and enter your username with the format unimelb\username in the Name field, and your university password in the Password field.

  • After the authentication, a new network drive will appear in the Shared section of the Finder's sidebar.

From the Terminal (CLI)

  • Start a Terminal window and create a local mount point (assuming the project is named: 1000-2016UOM001):

    mkdir -p ~/shares/1000-2016UOM001

  • Mount the share with the following command (the domain is unimelb for staff, student for students):

    mount_smbfs '//unimelb;your-unimelb-username@research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/1000-2016UOM001' ~/shares/1000-2016UOM001

  • To disconnect:

    umount ~/shares/1000-2016UOM001

Connecting on Windows

From the Windows Desktop (GUI)

  • Open Windows Explorer, click on This PC then click Computer -> Map network drive from the top bar.

  • Enter \\research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au\faculty_code-collection_name in the Folder field.  If you wish to have the network drive reappear the next time you start your computer, check the Reconnect at sign-in box.  If you are not on a University MOE machine, or if you want to connect to the network drive as a different university user, tick the Connect using different credentials box.

  • If you are on a University MOE machine, you should be immediately connected to the network drive.  Otherwise, you'll need to enter your credentials in the form unimelb\your-unimelb-username (staff) or student\your-unimelb-user (students) and your unimelb password.

  • After the authentication, a new network drive will appear on the Windows Explorer sidebar.

Connecting on Linux

Unimelb SOE distribution

  • For NFS (assuming it’s setup with Kerberos security):

    $ cd /net/research-nfs/<share>

  • For CIFS:

    $ cd /smb/research-cifs/<share>

Non-SOE distributions

From the Ubuntu Desktop (GUI)

  • Open Gnome Files.

  • Click on Other Locations on the sidebar.

  • In the Connect to Server field, type the address of your NetApp allocation, according to the format smb://research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/faculty_code-collection_name (where faculty_code and collection_name are substituted for your own values) and click Connect.

  • Select Connect As -> Registered User and enter:
    • Username: your university username
    • Domain: unimelb
    • Password: your university password
  • Click Connect.

  • After the authentication, a new network drive will appear on the sidebar.

From the Terminal/CLI

  • Start a Terminal window and install the cifs-utils package:

sudo apt install cifs-utils

  • Create a local mount point:

mkdir ~/mnt

  • Mount the share with the following command (domain is unimelb for staff, student for students):

sudo mount -t cifs -o user=your-username,domain=unimelb,uid=$UID,gid=$(id -g) //research-cifs.unimelb.edu.au/faculty_code-collection_name $HOME/mnt

NOTE: By default, mount.cifs tries to negotiate the highest SMB2+ version supported by both the client and server.  Higher protocol versions provide better performance and security.  You can specify a version to use, e.g. vers=1.0.  See the mount.cifs man page for more information (with the command man mount.cifs).